


Ghost in the Machine

by HelgaHeason



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Episode: s03e04 Children of Earth - Day 4, Episode: s04e08-9 Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, F/F, How Do I Tag, Ianto is a data ghost, Jack Needs a Hug, M/M, Other, Sadness, Songfic, Stopwatch joke, Survivor Guilt, The Library, i don't know how to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 04:42:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16906299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelgaHeason/pseuds/HelgaHeason
Summary: Several years after Ianto's death, Jack continues to mourn his fallen Welsh lover. But could a trip with the Doctor to the library help?





	Ghost in the Machine

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't my first fic, but it is my first fic on here.  
> Spoilers, sweetie -  
> Basically, the overall idea is that Ianto is saved as a data ghost, like River.   
> And I personified the library's air, because why not.

“It should be around here somewhere…” Thirteen said, waving a torch in front of her. “The library, where… Where my wife died.”.  
She sniffled a little, but perked up quickly upon seeing a lock. She pulled out her screwdriver, sonicked the door, and they were in. The door stood open as Thirteen and her Golden Trio walked through, although the immortal omnisexual alien (who was basically a time-space anomaly) stayed put. He had other things to do.  
 ** _You know how I get when the sun goes down_**  
“Hey, look, on the plus side, no-one’ll come out here.” Jack said, grinning.  
Ianto snorted.  
“Sir, you’re naked. And also, it’s night-time. No-one with any sense will go near that combination.” He replied, rolling his eyes.  
Jack grinned, a seductive smirk forming on his… Rather elegant features. A boyish charm, if you would. He grabbed hold of Ianto’s ankles, and pulled him into the pool, suit and all.  
“SIR!” Ianto shrieked, surfacing with a loud splutter.  
Jack’s grin only grew.  
 ** _How it feels when no-one’s around_**  
“Oh, Ianto…” Jack said, to absolutely no-one. “What do I do?”.  
The thin air lining the fabric of the library’s existence stayed silent. It didn’t give any indication as to what Jack should do. What **did** you say to a time-space anomaly who’d lost his boyfriend, in a tragic accident, involving an alien enemy creatively called the ‘4-5-6’? Absolutely nothing, because your words would have no effect.  
“Not gonna help?” Jack asked the library.  
The library’s silence was telling.  
 ** _(I know, I know oh-oh-oh)_**  
Something shifted in the air. It suddenly wasn’t as stifling. Jack didn’t know if it was him fainting due to the terrible quality of the air, or if it was death (come once more to greet him), or if the TARDIS’ automatic oxygen bubble had expanded. Maybe Thirteen had activated the library’s oxygen supply. If it even had one. Perhaps it was all in his head. Like most things were.  
 ** _(I know, I know oh-oh)_**  
Maybe if he asked Thirteen, she’d know what it felt like? God knows Thirteen had lost a lot in her short life – Grace, that sentient universe that liked frogs and spoke with Grace’s voice, and she couldn’t help Prem or Rosa. Jack could only presume that she was around ten years old (or, her regeneration, at least – he knew that she was actually around 2,200 years old), maybe even less. She certainly didn’t seem much older – but then again, Eleven had been around for about two hundred years when Jack inadvertently ran straight (ha, ha, ha, ‘straight’) into him in the Byzantium. But she’d definitely know. The Doctor would know.  
 ** _I’ve been bitten by the lonely_**  
But… Would that help? Thirteen either wouldn’t answer, or would tell him to move on, because they were dead and nothing could change that. Except River was a data ghost and could easily manifest herself whenever Thirteen was near enough (or emotional enough about her death). Call him a lost cause, but Jack was quietly hopeful that Ianto had somehow managed to connect to the library and had been saved. If anything else, Jack just wanted to hear Ianto’s beautiful Welsh vowels again. Honestly, kissing could wait – there was just something magical in being reunited with someone you believed dead. And that was something Jack was sure that Thirteen knew.  
 ** _But when I’m not the only_**  
Dear god – was it supposed to hurt this much? Or was that just the library’s thin air finally killing him? If it was, Jack had counted fifteen and a half minutes for his terrible Boeshane lungs to survive on this hostile planet. Not bad, he thought, for a time-space anomaly. Not bad at all. But then, suddenly, the pain stopped. It just… Vanished. Into the library’s thin air. Was he dying? Was the reaper on his way (again)?  
 ** _(When I’m not the only)_**  
Jack stood up, and walked through the door that Thirteen had left open. Where Thirteen and her Golden Trio had gone left, into the data cloud storage thingy (Jack honestly had no idea what it was, and he didn’t think he wanted to know), Jack went right, into the massive balcony overlooking the huge, grandiose library. The space was stunning. Never in a million years did he think he’d see something this big. And beautiful, too – although he did know a plucky young Welshman who could equal the beauty of the place. Books lined the marble shelves, dusty and yellowed with age. Honestly, it was incredible. After a few moments of simply gazing at the space and books, Jack dashed off to find Thirteen. He had to ask her, before he chickened out and she left for all of time and space again.  
 ** _One who feels it, baby, I know it’s sick to say_**  
“So, Doctor… Do you miss those you’ve lost?” Jack asked, quietly.  
For a brief second, he wondered if she just hadn’t heard him. But then her face hardened, and then Jack wondered if he’d said the wrong thing. Then, thank god, her face softened.  
“I do. Very much so.” She answered. Her nose scrunched up a little, and Jack found it rather cute. “Why do you ask?”.  
Jack paused.  
“Ianto…” He said, after a while.  
Thirteen’s face softened again.  
“Oh, Jack…” She said, and then Jack suddenly couldn’t bear to be near her, and ran off back to the balcony, being alone with only his thoughts and the semi-sentient air again.  
 ** _But it helps that you feel the same_**  
So Thirteen DID know what it was like, and she did partially answer his question. Jack turned to the air again, and sighed. It sighed with him, thinning and thickening with a humorous ferocity. But if Thirteen couldn’t help him, who could? Perhaps this was something that only time could fix – but time took forever to heal the wounds on a person’s mind, and even longer to heal the wounds on a person’s heart. The air shifted, and Jack ignored it. He didn’t know what it wanted to tell him. But the air was insistent. It thinned, and Jack was forced to move to prevent himself from passing out. He stood up, and hung onto a nearby pillar.  
 ** _(When the lights go out)_**  
The library’s lights suddenly flickered out, plunging the library itself into almost total darkness. Jack could make out a high-pitched scream, that sounded almost like a man’s, but he didn’t pay it much attention. What caught his attention instead was an almost luminescent figure, outlined in a human posture, glowing in a brilliant yellow light. He walked toward them, slowly, the figure glowing gently against the rows of books, seemingly beckoning him forward.  
“Who are you?” Jack asked, voice disturbingly high-pitched. He raised a particularly heavy book (Oliver Twist, it said, when he checked it), and held it above his head. “Show yourself or I’ll smack you senseless, I swear to god--!”.  
 ** _We’re glowin’ in the dark_**  
“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.” A voice said, from behind him. It was smooth, and familiar. Jack recognised it instantly. He’d know those Welsh vowels anywhere. A hand gently tapped his shoulder, and he willingly turned around dropping the book upon seeing the hand’s owner.  
“Did you miss me?” Ianto Jones grinned, standing there by him, glowing a faint blue.  
Jack tackle-hugged the Welshman, who thankfully didn’t fall over or vanish (he supposed being a data ghost did have its perks), and smiled into his shoulder.  
“Ianto Jones, you bastard!” Jack yelled. “How could you?”.  
 ** _We started from a spark_**  
Ianto snorted.  
“Says you.” He replied, and Jack chuckled into his shoulder.  
“Yeah…” He agreed, quietly. “I’m one to talk.”.  
Ianto let go of the ageless Time Agent, and stood back a little, seemingly thinking of something. Jack broke the silence a little awkwardly, but Ianto wouldn’t have it any other way.  
“So you’re a ghost?” He blurted out. “Like in the House of the Dead?”.  
Ianto tilted his head to one side.  
“The House of the Dead?” He asked, curiously. “I don’t recall that…”.  
Jack faltered, and then shrugged.  
“It doesn’t matter. But still, you’re a ghost, right?” He asked.  
“Correct.” Ianto nodded. “Well, a data ghost. I’m saved to the library, courtesy of your friend The Doctor.”.  
Jack silently thanked Thirteen – or whichever Doctor it was that had saved Ianto – with all his might, and he could’ve sworn he heard a slightly feminine squeal erupt from downstairs.  
“That’ll be Professor Song.” Ianto said, gazing over the balcony. “She’s been keeping me company here.”.  
 ** _We’re lights that never go out_**  
“What about your yellow friend?” Jack asked, briefly looking over at the glowing yellow figure he’d seen earlier, before gazing over the balcony as well, watching as Thirteen pretty much tackled her wife in the same way he’d tackled Ianto – and then as she nearly cried with joy.  
“Just the library interface.” Ianto answered. “How rare and beautiful it is, to be loved…” He paused, before continuing. “And how tragically sad it is, to be lost.”.  
Thirteen’s Golden Trio hugged River too, with only the old one acting a little oddly – more due to River being a ghost than Thirteen being married. He’d come to understand her oddness, and had accepted it with open arms. For him, he could only imagine the joy of being reunited with his dead wife – something Thirteen evidently didn’t have trouble accepting.  
“It’s even worse when you don’t know you’re loved.” Jack added, quietly.  
Ianto made a small noise of agreement in the back of his throat. The library’s air shifted again, becoming more breathable (much to Jack’s relief, and although Ianto didn’t need air, he seemed a little more at ease too).  
 ** _Like we’ve never been down_**  
“So… What now?” Jack asked, watching his ghost lover browse through the endless bookshelves.  
“You go save the world…” Ianto said, gently pulling a dusty old book off the shelf, and peering at its front. “And I’ll wait here, for whenever you get back.”.  
Jack smiled.  
“David Copperfield, eh?” He asked. “Does he do well with a stopwatch?”.  
As Jack left, to go save the Earth again and inevitably return to the library to see Ianto, he could’ve sworn (again) he’d seen Ianto’s slightly bluish ghost blush a little.  
“I have no idea what you mean…”  
 ** _We’re glowin’ in the dark_**

**Author's Note:**

> I snuck quite a few references in there.   
> The obvious ones being Ianto's death at the hands (tentacles?) of the 4-5-6, the library being the place where River died, etc. The not so obvious ones are Ryan's really high-pitched scream in The Ghost Monument (while yelling either "where's the meatloaf" or "where's the reload", I don't know which it is), the stopwatch joke made in Torchwood a few times, the House of the Dead (a Big Finish audio story wherein Ianto comes back as a ghost - part of the inspiration for this fic - and he and Jack confess their love for each other), and Jack never telling Ianto he loves him in Children of Earth.
> 
> Also, the song I used is about a boy struggling to get over a girl's death, which I thought fit for this fic.  
> The song is "Glowing in the Dark" by The Girl and the Dreamcatcher, and you can listen to it here:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kChRlveqBeU  
> I know I missed a verse and a few lines in the chorus, but I noticed that after I finished writing, and I'm happy with the fic as is, so I won't be changing that.
> 
> This did take quite a while, and I don't remember it being quite this long, but either way, enjoy :)


End file.
